Kinky Friedman Quotes

After all, I have spent the better part of my adult life insisting that government be open... that government be accessible... and that government be held accountable to people who voted us into office.

Throughout my first term in office, we have taken many steps to keep my commitment to make my work in Congress as transparent and accessible as possible.

Part of the problem you have is that you don't have a dialogue between elected officials and their constituents. They've built these barricades, these barriers around themselves and tried to avoid interaction with their constituents.

When I was first elected to the House in 2006, it was important to me to send a clear message to the people of NY-20: I wanted to be a representative for the people and shed some light on their government, so I became the first member of Congress to post my schedule, my financial disclosures and my earmark requests all online.

Why does the White House sometimes seem so determined to close the door on the people's right to know what their government is doing?

One of the greatest things that we provide in our democracy is the approachability of public officials.

The government being the people’s business, it necessarily follows that its operations should be at all times open to public view.

Open government is, within limits, an ideal that we all share. U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed it when he took office in January 2009.

I am committed to making Georgia a model for open and honest government.

It's my father's legacy. My father's view was that the public is the employer of these government employees and has the right to know what they're up to.

Ever since I arrived in Washington in April 2009, I have been fighting for more transparency and accountability in government.

We should be able to go to our government and get clear answers.

I am committed to working towards a more transparent, accountable, and ethical federal government worthy of the public's trust.

And one of the things I've tried to do in my first months in office is to give more Georgians - reporters and members of the general public alike - a closer look at how their government works.

We need more transparency and accountability in government so that people know how their money is being spent. That means putting budgets online, putting legislation online.

I think there's been a decline in the public's access to what's being done with their tax dollars, what's being done in their name. I hope that that will be repaired.

We've had public hearings. We've had interim reports, which our statute has encouraged us to provide to the public. We have brought the public along with us, trying to make as much available as possible over time.

Too many people in government seem to think they are above regular folks, and I said I would expect humility in the way each member of my team served- that they would recognize that the taxpayer is boss.

I introduced the Transparency in Government Act, a multi-faceted transparency bill that would bring unprecedented access and accountability to the federal government.

If governments did not mislead their citizens so often, there would be less need for secrecy, and if leaders knew they could not rely on keeping the public in the dark about what they are doing, they would have a powerful incentive to behave better.

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

The overarching purpose of access to information legislation … is to facilitate democracy. It does so in two related ways. It helps to ensure first, that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.

… a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

Connectivity is important to our state, including the opportunity for our citizens to see our legislative process at work.

We are world leaders in open and transparent government.